Police Launch Special Crackdown on Real Estate Crimes, 1,493 Apprehended in 5 Months

Second Phase of Special Crackdown on Real Estate Crimes to Continue Until October

The police have cracked down on 1,493 individuals who committed real estate crimes over the past five months. They plan to further intensify enforcement against market disruption by targeting additional offenses such as illegal brokerage activities, fraudulent subscription applications, and corruption related to reconstruction and redevelopment projects.

The National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency announced on March 26 that, from October of last year until mid-March, it had conducted a special crackdown on real estate crimes, apprehending 1,493 individuals and referring 640 of them for prosecution. Of these, seven people were arrested due to the severity of the charges.

Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, National Police Agency, National Investigation Headquarters. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

This crackdown is a follow-up measure to the government’s policy aimed at stabilizing the housing market. The police have identified eight major categories of illegal activities that undermine fairness and transparency in the real estate market, including so-called “price rigging.” These categories are: illegal brokerage activities, acts disrupting supply order such as fraudulent subscription applications, speculation using insider information, corruption in reconstruction and redevelopment projects, speculative land development schemes, illegal speculation in farmland, name lending, and rental deposit fraud. By type, the largest number of cases involved acts disrupting supply order, with 448 individuals (30.0%), followed by farmland speculation with 293 individuals (19.6%), and illegal brokerage activities with 254 individuals (17.0%).

Given the importance of cracking down on illegal real estate activities and the fact that many major cases (599 individuals, accounting for 40.1% of the total number apprehended) are still under investigation, the police plan to continue with a second phase of the special crackdown until October.

The National Investigation Headquarters will maintain the “Special Investigation Headquarters for Real Estate Crimes,” a nationwide investigative system led by the head of the Investigation Bureau. The agency also plans to actively utilize the intelligence and analytical capabilities of local police stations to conduct crackdowns tailored to regional characteristics, such as collusion and speculation. Discussions are ongoing with relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the National Tax Service, and the Financial Services Commission, to strengthen cooperation. In the future, the police plan to establish even closer collaborative systems through information sharing and data provision.

Park Sungjoo, Chief of the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency, stated, “Illegal activities in real estate undermine market order and pass the resulting harm on to the public. We will focus even more investigative resources on illegal acts such as price collusion in the housing market.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.